She walked out of Hollywood?s Kodak Theatre a surprise winner last Sunday, and life for actress Rachel Weisz couldn?t be more joyful.

The London-born star, who turned 35 last Tuesday, is blissfully happy with a doting fiance and a baby on the way. Now, her mantlepiece will be adorned with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

And her award ? for a gripping performance as the feisty wife of diplomat Ralph Fiennes in The Constant Gardener ? has catapulted her straight onto the Hollywood A-List.

The actress is seven months pregnant with her first child, by film director Darren Aronofsky. But despite her Academy Awards success, there is one name she will not be choosing for her baby.

?We don?t know if it?s a boy or a girl,? smiled Rachel after picking up her trophy, ?but Oscar isn?t among the names, that?s for sure.

Winning this award is overwhelming.

As an actor it is something you dream of but you think it will never happen, although a lot of people voted and it is amazing.

?Because I?m pregnant my brain is a bit like porridge. I think I was a big blank. It?s a very surreal, strange feeling.?

And with alcohol currently off the menu, Rachel knew exactly what she was going to celebrate with.

?We just came through the kitchens and I saw all the chocolate,? she said, ?and I thought that is what I want. Chocolate is my drug of choice tonight.?

Motherhood was also on Rachel?s mind back in 2004 when she was making The Constant Gardener ? out this week on DVD, see page 10 ? which is based on the novel by John le Carre.

She had to wear a fake baby bump for her role as pregnant activist Tessa Quayle alongside Ralph Fiennes as her husband Justin.

?I loved being pregnant in that film,? says Rachel. ?I really enjoyed it. Women look beautiful when they are pregnant. I especially loved the scene between Ralph and myself where we are hanging a mobile in the unborn baby?s bedroom. I think that has a great sweetness to it.

?Probably the most challenging scene was the one after I?ve lost our baby in the hospital and I am very grief-stricken, but I channel my grief into my passion for saving other people?s lives. It was difficult to get the right balance because she is traumatised by the death of her child, but at the same time won?t allow herself any self pity.?

Rachel has said that she had the ?time of her life? making The Constant Gardener, but the star was almost beaten to the role by Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Kate Winslet who were all considered by the film?s producers before Weisz was cast.

And she did them proud, picking up her Oscar and a Golden Globe.

?It was fantastic working with Ralph,? gushes Rachel. ?He?s a wonderful, wonderful acting partner. I would absolutely love to work with him again ? as many times as he?ll have me.?

She may now have the world at her feet, but Rachel had a turbulent childhood.

Both of her parents are Jewish and were brought to England before the Second World War to escape the onrushing Holocaust, starting their new lives with nothing.

Her Hungarian father George became an inventor of medical devices, including a life-saving respiratory machine. Mother Edith, from Vienna, was a psychoanalyst.

But Edith and George had a rocky marriage and Rachel, maybe to gain attention, became rebellious and was expelled from Benenden School in North London.

?It was a very difficult time,? she admits. ?I used to be insecure about everything. I?m more settled now.?

A couple of years later, Rachel had decided she wanted to act, but her parents demanded that she finish her education first.

She did so in grand style, going to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to study English Literature and gaining a 2:1 degree.

After Cambridge, Rachel?s big break came in 1996 when she starred in Bertolucci?s Stealing Beauty with Liv Tyler before going on to rack up other hits in Scarlet And Black with Ewan McGregor and Land Girls with Anna Friel.

Then came Hollywood blockbuster The Mummy, with Brendan Fraser, which raked in an incredible $100m in the US in 17 days.

Parallel to her acting career, Rachel?s bewitching beauty bagged her a contract as the face of cosmetics giants Revlon. She was even offered a vast sum of money to pose in Playboy, but declined.

Darren and Rachel now share a loft apartment in Manhattan, New York, and have a home in North London.

They met when friends introduced them three years ago.

But before settling down with Darren, Rachel had romances with American Beauty director Sam Mendes, now married to Kate Winslet, and Men Behaving Badly?s Neil Morrissey.

Rachel said she got fed up with women slipping their phone numbers into Morrissey?s pockets.

She also hated all the media attention, something he loved. Rachel also dated film producer Dominic Anciano and American actor Alessandro Nivola, but now she?s found love at last and her dad George is equally thrilled.

?She?s with a nice young man,? he says. ?And I?m happy that she?s going to have a baby.?

Rachel?s career is also going from strength to strength. Her next film project is a #10m British project called Death Defying Acts with shooting due to start in Scotland after her baby is born.

She is due to star opposite LA Confidential star Guy Pearce, the pair playing lovers in a fictional account of a romance between escapologist Harry Houdini and a conwoman in 1920s Edinburgh.

And, despite the fact Rachel has referred to Hollywood as ?really toxic? in the past, there may even be more Oscars to come in the future.